Local Celebrities

On Tuesday, Sam's boss came into his office and asked 'Sam, do you want to be a filmstar?'  Sam considered the question and decided yes, then called me to ask the same thing. It turns out the Ministry of Tourism needed some foreigners to be in a promotional video of Kratie, something that should help with the work Sam is doing with CRDTours in this area. I was extremely excited.  We set off at 9.30am all ready for action and really should have known better. The first hour was spent waiting by the ferry boat for the crew to arrive and all the family members that would be accompanying us on the trip.  And the whole day which we had anticipated would take an hour, ended up taking 6!

We finally set off at 10.30am in what was now pretty unbearably hot weather. There was a lot of sweating going on which will most definitely show up on camara but at least it will look authentic. Come to Cambodia, it's really really hot!!

First we had to walk up to the information office and ask about tours on the island. We were shown a map and then put onto a horse cart that would take us round the island. We had to do about four takes of this before we realised what was expected of us.

 

All the island locals watching our acting skills

We then did some moving shots with the filmcrew on the back of a moto riding along side the horsecart. This went on for a long time and involved us eating at least two 'kralan' (sticky rice) each while looking very happy about how delicious it was.

This is just before we ate all the sticky rice I'm clutching.

All the family and friends being taken to the homestay house for lunch

Some poor, unsuspecting real tourists had joined us by this point and we all had lunch together at a homestay which was very good.  After lunch was an enforced rest on the beds which had been laid out in the homestay.  Sam actually got a short nap, consistent with his behaviour on holiday last week, and it was all filmed.

We then set off on our bikes to plant a tree to support eco-tourism.

I found this very exciting as it is the third tree that I've planted (only the second time it's been filmed though).

Here is a photo and a clip of me planting a tree in Tower Hamlets with my Year 1 class.

And here I am in Namibia planting a friendship tree as part of our visit

 and now my Cambodian tree

 Sam's tree gets two thumbs up

Guarding our trees

Eco Tourism! Cambodia, Kingdom of Wonder!

(we had to do about six takes for this bit as shouting in unison is harder than you think)

It was an unexpectedly fun day and yet another great experience for us to remember our time in Cambodia.  The video is supposed to take around 2 weeks to make and then will be aired on all the Cambodian channels.  We're going to receive a DVD so will be posting that up as soon as we get it!